Description

In 1785 a young American named James Leander Cathcart is kidnapped at sea and carried as prisoner to the maverick North African statelet of Algiers The piratical corsairs of Algiers have decided to exploit the vulnerability of the United States by seizing its mariners and holding them for ransom Today the name of James Leander Cathcart has been all but forgotten

The Lionkeeper of Algiers reveals the extraordinary and unlikely story of Cathcart who rose steadily up the ranks from lionkeeper at the Deys private zoo to become Chief Clerk at the Palace along the way amassing a chain of taverns in Algiers that functioned as safe houses and food banks for American prisoners

Eleven years later Cathcart was paroled back to America and charged with delivering a vital letter to President George Washington saving a tenuous peace deal and bringing the other captives home Cathcart would go on to become a US diplomat in the lands where he was held captive for more than a decade

This narrative follows the twists and turns of Cathcarts own life upon the international stage of diplomacy trade and maritime statecraft at a time when Americas place in the world was hanging in the balance